Gentlemen of the West

by Agnes Owens

"Gentiluomini dell’Ovest" è il primo romanzo pubblicato da Agnes Owens nonché l’opera che la introdusse nel circolo dei letterati scozzesi. Romanzo corale costituito da una serie di episodi tra loro connessi, l’opera narra le vicende di Mac, muratore ventiduenne che fatica a sbarcare il lunario nella Glasgow degli anni Ottanta. Esilarante parabola sulla povertà di mezzi e la ricchezza di spirito, Agnes Owens celebra la classe lavoratrice scozzese in un ritratto umoristico e spesso tagliente nella sua mirabile precisione, capace di rivelare l’immancabile unione di dramma e commedia in ciascuna delle avventure dell’eroe di questo romanzo così come nella commovente, avvinazzata, indimenticabile umanità che lo circonda.

Genres: Scotland, Fiction, Short Stories, Literature

128 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1984

About the author

Agnes Owens was a Scottish author. She was born in Milngavie in 1926 and spent most of her life on the west coast of Scotland. She has been married twice and raised seven children, also working as a cleaner, typist and factory worker.

Via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_O...

Reviews

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first experience of reading Owens; such a wonderful experience to discover a new writer with her whole repertoire yet to come.

She writes with a deadpan gothic style, and with a down-to-earth emphasis on ordinary people, with a blunt wit.

Gentlemen of the West was originally published as a novel, though often seen as a series of short stories. At the time it was published short stories were considered more difficult to market, so Owens rewrote them with some continuity, and I think that works really well.

It’s a short novel, just 120 pages, which in itself probably contributed to its lack of success, giving the erroneous impression that Owens was not a proper author, as she only wrote short stories and novellas, and was a part-time writer, with a working-class day job as a cleaner and typist in the Vale of Leven, near Dumbarton. This was her first published work, when she was 58, published in 1984.

The book’s protagonist, Mac, is a 22 year old bricklayer, who is just beginning to realise that his future is not in his home town. It is the mid-1980s, old industries are vanishing, unemployment is soaring, with the country was in deep recession the area is feeling the pinch more than most.

Bored and listless, in a rare sober moment, he wanders the fields of his youth..

Yes, these were the days of real adventure, real heroes and real villains. Now it was all grind, booze or thrush to get by on the dole.

Chapter by chapter Mac’s becomes more troubled; he remains unemployed after months, his close friend has died of drink and exposure, and he has been arrested as an accomplice to a pointless crime.

Though the first couple of chapters read very much as self-contained short stories, after the chapter ‘Up Country’, the characters are authentic and striking, as are the various hardships they face in their lives. As the novel proceeds the humour is darker, and there is less of it, but very much to the benefit of the story, fewer laughs but much more poignant.
I had read one of the chapters, Christmas in the Paxton, previously, but without the context of what happens earlier, it is much less appreciated. It actually contains one of the key moments of the novel, which would not be understood in short story form.

You could say that Mick and Baldy were the true gentlemen of the west. Generous, treacherous, vicious and kindly with no admiration for the rich and successful. Yet the difference between them and me was that I liked working.

A strength of Owens is in the description of her characters, often homeless, alcoholic, or suffering with mental problems, but, just ordinary people struggling at an extraordinary time.

In an interview in 2008 she said..

I prefer to write about people that are just condemned, maybe, from the start. You know, maybe their environment, or their parents or they don’t have a chance and they end up being despised. I prefer to give people like that a voice.

Though this did appear as short stories, it is much better read as a novel, which enables the characters to be drawn more deeply, and to earn the reader’s sympathy, or otherwise, accordingly.

Here’s a couple of clips..

I followed the path deeper into the wood fighting through ferns which were as tall as myself. It was getting harder to follow the path and I was beginning to think I would never get out of this jungle when I emerged at last into a grassy but where the trail led upwards again. Then I spied a building on another path to the left.
The building turned out to be merely a hit, neatly boarded up and of no earthly interest, but beyond that was the entrance to a graveyard. It was a very wee graveyard and very old. The gravestones were dirty dark grey and standing at all angles. A perfect background for Dracula. I studied one big stone closely and could make out a fancy design with words written underneath, ‘Here Lies the Corpse of Jessie Buchanan’. On another there was a cheerful verse which I managed to decipher after peering at it for five minutes:

Here Lies Tom,
His Life Was Squandered,
His Days Are Done,
But Yours are Numbered.

In the middle of all this creepiness was a wooden seat twisted and gnarled as a corpse itself. I could picture Tim of an evening coming out of his grave and sitting there peacefully with arms folded and legs crossed. So I sat down too.
Then from the wood there was a crack as if someone or something had stood on a branch while he or it was watching me. I could bear it no longer. I wrenched myself off the seat and ran past the hut down the path then up over the top of the island like a mountain goat. I didn’t stop until I reached the jetty, just in time to be caught by the mailboat returning.

and, as he ponders a break-in to a wealthy house in the neighbourhood with a drunken friend..

…’Anyway’, I said as if the subject hadn’t been dropped, ‘these folks might be mates o’mine.’
He said coldly, ‘Its no’ likely. The daughter is a Sunday school teacher and her faither is Kilty Cauld Bum McFadjan, the Scottish Nationalist. I don’t know aboot the mother, but she must be another bampot. They say she leaves the door open a’ the time tae let the cat in and oot’.
I was surprised. ‘Surely no’ Cauld Bum! He’s not worth much.’
‘Don’t you believe it. He goes aboot fixing bagpipes. His hoose is stacked oot wit’ them. These bagpipes are worth a fortune. Tinker Geordie that plays outside the Clansman wid gie us at least a fiver for a decent set.’
This was different. Kitty Cauld Bum was a joke with most people. Especially us of the socialist class. He cycled about, delivering his pamphlets with his kilt flying in the wind like a bad imitation of Rob Roy. I never had much regard for the highland gentry, but he wasn’t even a real one.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as part of her Collected Stories. Wonderful funny writing. Poor working class young man, a brickie, finding it tough to find work in mid 80s Scotland. He and his mates have few skills and even less ambition. They like their drink, but that's just an integral and unavoidable part of life. He still lives at home with his Ma. They're tough people that don't want to reveal any vulnerable softness, but it leaks out. The brief scenes with his mother, usually either leaving the house or coming home, are little pregnant gems of hilarious family ties. He and his mates are often desperate for money or booze, and some of the very black scenes made me laugh out loud. Terrific.

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

seems i read tis already in her "Complete short stories" but in that i think they left out the chapter headings:
McDoanld's Dug
McDonald's Mass
Grievous Bodily Harm
Tolworth McGee
The Auld Wife's Fancy Man
Up Country
The Group
Paid Aff
McCluskie's Oot
Christmas Day in the Paxton
The Aftermath
The Ghost Seeker
Goodbye Everybody

if you can only read some agnew owens, read "gentlemen of the west"

[Chrystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

These connected stories were published as a novel, but are best read as individual stories. This Scottish author is new to me. She writes very humorously about very unfunny situations.

[Liz Moffat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of short stories is so funny, all linked by Mac, an unemployed young brickie, still living with his mother. Mac has been out of work for months.He spends his days trying to find money to buy drink, and to spend time at the Paxton Arms with his buddies, men also out of work. Most of the drinking is done here but also in derelict buildings from wine bottles passed around. You can feel the camaraderie and humour throughout these stories, the banter is great and although no-one has much, there is a sense of community and sharing. Mac is looking for work though and there is a gradual realisation that he is not happy with his lot.

[Zachary Ngow · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book about poor unemployed drunkards that manages to be incredibly funny yet not condescending or nasty. minor misunderstandings lead to swings in opinion of friends, episodes include meeting friends from the past, foreigners, strange dogs, failed robberies, beatings and false deaths. much of this book is about friendships

the postscript by Alasdair Gray makes more sense than I can cobble together and also has an interesting history of working class writing in Britain. I had read that Agnes Owens was an underrated writer and can confirm that her writing is all it's cracked up to be.

[Eòghann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoidhle sìmplidh, tarraingeach, taitneach. Chur e tortilla flat nam chuimhne, daoine aig nach eil mòran, aig nach eil mòran dòchais. Is an dèidh sin, làn tùirs, fàth gàire, is dealbh fìor de bheatha.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant collection of episodic chapter/stories, set in Scotland, in the milieu of the down and out.

[marti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story no one else would have paid attention to, of people that don’t get noticed, but of a simple reality worth writing about.